Pedalpalooza & the Politics of Fun (photo story)

“[In a consumer society] Fun morality displaces ‘goodness morality’ which stressed interference with impulses. Not having fun is an occasion for self-examination… ”
— Daniel Bell, The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism

The Zoo Bomb Century is a daylong descent (they ride about 3 miles downhill from the zoo, take their bikes up in the elevator that connects the subway to the zoo and repeat this procedure until they’ve raced 100 miles). The Zoo Bomb Century is also an annual event in Pedalpalooza—Portland's 3+ week bicycle festival.

During that war for oil known as the 2nd Iraq war the cops would jump cyclists and throw them onto the pavement if they briefly took over the street to make automobile drivers acknowledge a sustainable method of transportation. Now, ten years later, the cops will be directing traffic to facilitate our naked bike ride.

— A Midsummer Night's Dream, act 3, scene 2
For Portland's 2013 - 2014 World Naked Bike Ride almost 10,000 cyclists rode more or less naked through our city. In 2015 the official count was 100 more than 10,000 riders.

Here a vibrant African-American neighborhood with a club where the great jazz musicians played was demolished to build a hospital complex that was in the end never actually built.
The talk was about gentrification as ‘colonization by other means’ (by market forces) and the privatizing of our ’CULTURAL COMMONS’ i.e. alternative bicycle fun being turned into a marketing brand to sell the city to out-of-state yuppies.

Bring your groovy wigs, bedazzled garb and some cash-o-la. Ride starts at Florida Room, then we jaunt over to Alleyway, Beulahland, and end at Dots Cafe. Let's see how many people we can cram into a booth.

“The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich.” – John Berger

We are lovers of Lebowski (the Dude), bikers of the city with the necessary means for taking 'er easy. Come out with your best costume or a robe if you are a lazy man. There will be re-enactments of various scenes at 7 parks throughout the city.

The marks from a tall bike fall earlier in the week can still be seen on this hardcore cyclist's face. Part of the bicycle culture’s lasting appeal is that it can be dangerous fun that doesn't endanger anyone but oneself.

Before Portland was famous for bicycles it was known for its architecture: flamboyant Victorian iron front buildings…. But Portland is also home to an unheralded collection of buildings inspired by the early 20th century classical-moderne style of Italy's Fascist years. This tour is led by architect Rick Potestio.

I expected only cold brutality, but the Fascist buildings were as warm and inviting as this prime example, the Portland Art Museum. My expectations were also undone when on the night of the 2013 naked bike ride the museum charged a dollar per item of clothing and so encouraged its patrons to be as naked as its statues.

The Bike Fair concludes with a performance by The Sprockettes. Ten years ago The Sprockettes introduced synchronized bicycle dancing to Portland as a way to bring more women into the bicycle subculture…